The Great & Powerful Trixie once saved the party from some kidnappers. It was a messy save, but still one we all walked away from. Never got one bit of respect or praise for it-- only criticism on her brute-force method of going about the rescue.

Just one of the numerous problems I had with our last Deadlands game was the fact that we never got the chance to do any tale-tellin' to improve morale and drive off fear after destroying Insert Hideous Threat Here. Mind you, it was already railroady as all heck so I doubt we'd have been allowed to make a difference anyway... :-/

Other then almost all the time (the characters I play who survive have an aversion to the public eye, and notoriety, so I stand in the crowd of cameras and stuff while the rest of the party gets VIP treatment), I can recall a time where, after saving a train from killers/high-profile-kidnappers, the team I was apart of went to the local authorities to collect the bounty that had been on the kidnappers heads.

They nearly got arrested themselves for trying to pose as the "epic looking heroes" they "obviously" don't look like. Thankfully we had a diehard fan of Trixie in the group who had convinced the police that the group was just trying to scrap enough cash together so she could go and see a Trixie concert for her birthday (cause a cost of a ticket for that concert was like EVIL), and to not arrest them.

... however, our youngest member and I was still at the train station making sure everyone was ok, and someone thought we were also some of the captives, so we got a free ice cream. Yay.

It was a Western setting and I was bringing all of the players together. One had a native as a character, and he was caught up in a trial against a friendly tribe -- it was essentially a trumped up, governmental landgrab type of deal. Not friendly or even really legal, to be honest, but more than a little historical.

The chief of the beleaguered tribe was allowed to speak and delivered excerpts from that famous Chief Seattle "How can you buy the sky..." speech, complete with a link to the full text.

I know, it was written for a movie, but based on as close to first-hand accounting as it was possible to obtain at the time. Regardless, it was a very moving scene.

After the speech, the players waited anxiously as the court officials conferred. They, of course, expected a Hollywood style "We're Saved" moment. They didn't get it.

Not only was the content and emotional quality of the speech dismissed with arrogance, but the length of it gave the court an excuse to rescind the rights of the defendants to speak. Instead, they would be restricted to communicating to the court through their attorney under the excuse of efficient use of time.

Needless to say, the reactions on part of the players were extreme and about as honest as any I've ever seen. Riotous action erupted, even from those players not immediately involved with the trial.

We... Uh...
Man, it's still embarassing. We were so gung-ho eager to get planetside and pursue our target that we didn't bother signing up with the other mercenaries flying down for the battle in the morning. So when a the space-Texan enlisted soldiers whimsically offered us a once-in-a-lifetime job driving their unspeakably ancient & holy battle tank (they were more comfortable on horseback), we agreed, and when the time came we punched through enemy lines and carried the battle...
And saw our exploits in the news next session, where it was announced that an unknown group of heroic mercenaries had risked life and limb piloting the archeotech Fellglaive tank, Free. Of. Charge. Sure, there was appreciation, but no one knew it was us, and a couple of us were EXCEPTIONALLY displeased by missing out on that kind of payout.

My cleric has saved burning villages, driven off a dragon, burned down a cultist camp, killed off a good chunk of their high ranking leadership, helped clear our name when accused of murder, used diplomacy three times to save the lives of various party members, and stood in the front lines against things that would make a fighter cry. Not to mention all the other things he's done.

The only thing he gets as recognition for his selfless acts is to be called a wimp and a pansy elf at every opportunity while being the universal target for whatever beehive his party decided to stir up this time around. And he's a half elf, dang it!

He's altruistic, so betrayal is the last thing on his mind. That and they've come to his aid enough times that he tolerates it. But there is one character that is annoying him (and by extension me and half the group) lately that I foresee a fireball to the face of that particular character soon enough.

Though, since the annoying character and the person seem to be one and the same, I'm having a hard time wondering if it's my character annoyed with his character or if I'm the one annoyed with the player. Then again, he won't shut up with his attempts to assign all blame to my cleric for burning down the plains we were in. Despite the fact that he not only encouraged the idea (after the rest of us agreed it was a terrible idea), but figured out a way to do it safely and provided the tools to get it done.

I was about to say that reverse-psychology is what Faust was trying to do, but then I realized that Faust actually DID expect them to be excited about the fair, and this was the first of her *secret* speedbumps/encounters to challenge their enthusiasm.

At what point does a character mastered his job.D&D and similar RPG based only
Me:you know your a great thief, when you can take the clothes off a noble in public(underwear too) and they don't realize it, until they become a laughing stock.

As for me... I have heard rumors in my group of a halfling ninja who declared her mastery of stealth by holding a lantern in front of a guard... Who saw a floating lantern, and not the halfling holding it. No spells, no rings or other artifacts, just that amazingly good.

A great thief... or a sorceror/wizard with chained reach Teleport Object. (Yes, this requires a level 11 spell slot. If you have level 11 spell slots, you're an arcane spellcaster to be reckoned with.)

I did point this possibility out a few pages back. Personally, I'd be surprised if they were invited back in and it wasn't a deliberate trap to get back at them for what they did last time.

Sure, I agree that saving the world should get them some special recognition. But if the saviors of the world crashed my last party and embarrassed some of my guests in front of everyone present, I'd hesitate to invite them to the next one too.

Well obvioussslllyyy most adventurers get the short end of the schtick after saving the world. Why? It's because no one knows about it, it's "top secret", or no one just fully understands the magnitude of the danger they were saved from.

You see... most adventurers have a PR problem. It probably doesn't help that sometimes they're prone to wanton destruction either...

Playing a Half-Elf Rogue in 5E campaign (starter kit). Got rid of the bandits, go out again and kill the goblins. Come back to town, there's aids-rain, cancer-soil, and malaria-wind (amongst other things). Walk into the tavern, our drunk employer keeping the angry mob at bay. Not our fault, haven't even been thanked so far, and we get blamed for something we didn't have a hand in. If I'm going to get blamed for something, I at least want to have been responsible for it!

My player's were on a quest to save the high priest's daughter who had been kidnapped by cultists. They managed to save her, but not before the girl was tainted by demonic magic. Needless to say the high priest was not happy. Not only did the party not get paid, they ended up kidnapping the girl themselves before the high priest could "purge the evil in her" by fire.